Too much of a good thing? After all, the 70s weren't all brown, no matter how much we have shaded the memory so. The refrigerator was green, the toilet was blue, and more times than not, an entire room would be sunshine yellow. Usually the kitchen.

All the better to seeeee you with.

Yellow was supposed to be Happy, Bright, Inspiring. Yellow was the Happy Face; Yellow was this guy. --->

And for a long time, we believed it.

Current thinking has it (and current thinking may also be quackery, but hear me out) "Yellow is also the most fatiguing to the eye due to the high amount of light that is reflected....Yellow can also create feelings of frustration and anger. While it is considered a cheerful color, people are more likely to lose their tempers in yellow rooms and babies tend to cry more in yellow rooms.....Since yellow is the most visible color, it is also the most attention-getting color." Have we found Culprit Zero of the Me Decade?

Another source adds, "Be careful with yellow as some stronger shades can enhance feelings of emotional distress. "That shade would most likely be Sunshine.

Scary Evidence of Yellow Gone Wrong

1. Plaid

"The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing." (Gilman)

A step forward in the establishment of a women's history museum in our nation's capital.

The National Women's History Museum Act of 2009 came a step closer to real this week when HR 1700 was passed by committee, in this case the House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on Public Buildings and Emergency Management. zzzzz. We'll take what we can get.

Most bills do not make it this far.

GovTrack helps you follow the bills you are interested in with a status tracker showing how far little Bill still has left to go. HR 1700 needs to be voted on by the House, then the Senate (hoo boy...so woman-friendly, our Senate) then to the President's desk.

And getting this far has worn our little Bill out.

I am not a charter member of many things: The Puppy Power Club, the Service Readiness Team, and the National Women's History Museum Project. Founded in 1996, NWHM has spent most of its energy lobbying for a spot on the Mall and drumming up membership. Getting other national women's organizations to join its coalition has also been a priority. Who else could get the Junior League, Hadassah, and the DAR to agree on anything? Noticably absent: NOW. And I am still trying to get to the bottom of that.

Highlights of the Bill:To authorize the Administrator of General Services to convey a parcel of real property in the District of Columbia to provide for the establishment of a National Women’s History Museum.

Real. NMWH has a "virtual" museum on its website. We will not settle.

The property is generally bounded by 12th Street, Independence Avenue, Maryland Avenue, the James Forrestal Building, and L’Enfant Plaza, all in Southwest Washington, District of Columbia, and shall include all associated air rights, improvements thereon, and appurtenances thereto...

So...not the Mall. But there is not much space left on the Mall, and we are not going to argue the Latino-American Museum which was granted the Castle spot instead of us. This parcel is actually known as the Cotton Annex, which is irritatingly ironic. Let us all agree not to refer to it as on "the apron" of L'Enfant Plaza.

The purchase price for the property shall be its fair market value based on its highest and best use as determined by an independent appraisal commissioned by the Administrator and paid for by the Museum.In other words, not government money. (how to support the museum effort)

...shall be dedicated for use as a site for a national women’s history museum for the 99-year period beginning on date of conveyance of that portion to the Museum.

Good thing Jesse Helm is dead.Most of this Bill is a real estate closing, which explains the committee it was sent to. Since this will be a private organization, and not a government endeavor, the Bill does not attempt to dictate the contents or mission of the museum. This will make the alarmist-news people happy, so they can imagine (then be outraged by) the Lesbian Wing and the multi-media history of abortion. Because women's history is all about sex, you know.

One fairly conservative and generally Republican veteran I know said during a recent election, "Do you know there are three women running for Governor seats?"I said dryly, "Oh, yeh, we're out there." In fact, 28 women have been governor. 28 women, 50 states, 233 years. There have been 37 women in the US Senate since we invented it.Half of them have been elected since the founding of the NWHM Project.

Passing the NWHM Act might be easier than passing the ERA. But only because we are willing to take a building the National Health Museum Project didn't want.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

But I've been workshopping this essay at cocktail parties (read: repeating myself over beers down the Coyote) and my blogroll tells me it's ok for us to still be talking about it (here and here). Here's what I want to explain to those who have dropped in to see what condition their condition is in, and find the whole experience stressful.

Yes, stressful.
There are those in our circle who can not navigate the complex rules of Facebook culture. Here is what I want to explain.

The rules of Facebook are very clear and simple. They are just not the rules of polite society. I feel your confusion, because as you recall, my experiment with Second Life was a complete wash. I feel like that weird long-legged character who attached himself to me is still flying around waiting for "Abby" to come back from the shoe store.

There are active Facebookers, occasionals, and people who never make it to the newsfeed for one reason or another. There are people who don't even provide status. I equate them to Netflix friends who won't rate movies. They are still my friends, I will still flip through their queues, but it would be more fun if they would play along. And here is one of the FB social rules: you don't have to talk to anyone if you don't want to.

It took years, cue cards, and the Female Seminary at Botetourt Springs to help me make small talk at parties. It took 10 years in Higher Ed to practice approaching wallflowers and inviting them into the conversation. FB rules allow you to bust into or avoid any salon taking place at the moment. Because it is only going to be for that moment, and there is another happening right behind it.

You do not have to befriend anyone you don't want to; similarly, you may approach anyone you like, so long as you understand they can ignore you. People tell me "I don't want to Friend that person," (sadly, in FBland, "befriend" did not catch on) "But I don't know how not to."
Like this:

If someone sent you a valentine, or a birthday party invitation, or approached you at a dinner party in real life -- or, if in Second Life, when a skunk with Sailor Moon ponytails approaches a taller, trimmer version of yourself -- it would be rude to literally ignore them. Not so in Facebook. Accept or don't accept, it's your Wall.

People who find this stressful are only practicing the Golden Rule: they want all their gifts and quizzes and offers of games to be accepted, so they practice receiving. I can see how that would be stressful. And a little conceited. Remind yourself it is not real life, and that isn't a real bouquet you just sent, and you can feel better about not playing Mafia Wars.

I feel very secure in not playing Mafia Wars.

One of my Friend/friends who studies game theory is working on a study of Facebook "play" to identify who plays and who doesn't and why. If she had been awake at 2am today as I was, she would discover that Facebookers play because they are awake at 2am.

Let me also say that FB is a great communication device. Use it to organize your personal life, and the results are quite pleasing. Plan events, schedule group lunches and reunions, meet up for a jog (ok, that's not an example from my life, but you are with me right?), check in on F/friends in flood and fire zones. Share the pictures from the wedding. It does all the things Craigslist, eVite, Chat Rooms and You Tube do without the clutter of strangers. Cultivate your actual friendships and rejuvenate your old ones. Experiment with new ones if you like.

If you like.

A dear friend I talked into Facebook hated it from the first day. She bailed quickly, and wrote about it in an old-fashioned medium whose rules she understood better (blogs). It is an honest account of what's wrong with Facebook, and I don't deny her experience. No one was more surprised than I was that I "rock Facebook like [I] invented it," (says the man who got me to join Facebook).

I discovered that FB Nation is a culture that meets my public/private persona needs with the right balance of "Here for you" and "Not right now." Moving to New England had a similar effect.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

If the Drawing In Room has any traditions, it may be my annual Oscar blogcast play-by-play, which is written live, even if posted shortly after the fact.2009, 2008, 2007

I wondered if I should attempt the same with the Emmys, even though I stopped watching broadcast TV about 2 years ago. I weaned slowly -- Grey's Anatomy kept me hooked for a few seasons, until I found you could watch it on-line. And the Office, 30 Rock, and really... it's cold down there where the TV is.

So I upped my Netflix count, unhooked the VCR (so quaint, Amish) and gave it up.
But I do love my awards shows. I still love the buzz of the new TV season, even if it is hard to find the freshness under the reality, procedurals, and vampires.

When Neil Patrick Harris himself asked me to tune in (by way on an ad on 60 Minutes, which I don't watch either. You can get it on podcast.) I thought I would join the culture, if only for a few hours.

And guess what I forgot: Massachusetts got a Senate race in it! And a Mayor's race. And a Governor's race. Oh, dear MY, will this be a long evening. For your amusement, I will try to tally the # of appeals and approvals.

Here... we...go.

[8:00] Opening number is a gas, complete with white sport coat.Vanessa: why you be hatin' the glasses gag? When I was a college freshman, we got our whole floor to wear hats for the group photo. Maybe a good sport woulda won.

People's voting? Oh, ATAS, why stoop so low? We already have that awards show.Scoring the Emmys is a pretty good get for CBS, who gets to plug all their own shows during the breaks (when not selling me a Senator). CBS has not been king for a very long time, even though they ruled the airwaves during my childhood.

Justin Timberlake is starting to look like Ryan Phillipe. Now that's a sammich.

I think I could have lived my whole live without hearing Toni Collette's real voice. How does someone win the Emmy and get such little applause in the hall? That's weird.

CBS is going to get some angry letters about the Family Guy segment.

I really don't care for reality shows, and I'll tell you why.

10. I am not very competitive by nature. I am not at all competitive about rooting for other people where sports are not involved.
9. Judges are mean. Isn't it enough to make yourself vulnerable to strangers and discover you are unqualifies for your life's dream, without being ridiculed too?
8. The crazy production values with the long pauses, flashing lights, cliffhanger commercial breaks and schizophrenic interior design.

5. Day-after quarterbacking around the office. I recognize that if I watched these shows AND if I enjoyed them, I would enjoy this too. But there you are.

4. Tension played for entertainment. I have medical shows for that, thank you.

3. D list TV actors and former child stars make me sad

2. I predict a merging of dating/professional intervention/competition shows very soon

1. Jon Kate

Reality Host is a category? CBS 2010 program note: So you think you can Host.

9:00pm The Windows 7 commercial has aired twice already. One of its reviews praises it as "Stable."
Blink. Blink.

9:15pm Possibly the first academy acknowledgement of an organ donation.

I invite all Netflix members to rediscover the golden age of TV mini-series - 1978-1988.

Another list:

1. Roots - but of course

2. East of Eden - ACTING!3. Centennial4. North & south - RIP, Patrick

5. Thorn Birds - KISS ME ON MY MOUTH!

6. Shogun

7. one more Richard Chamberlin - Count of Monte Cristo

8. Little Women

9. Rich Man, Poor Man

10. Backstairs at the white House

9:30pm Award Show rule #1: the film with Nazis in it will win

I found myself wondering recently what Winston Churchill would sound like in an ordinary conversation, say at breakfast. Asking if the dry cleaning was ready to be picked up that day. We should make one of those "first family" comedy albums featuring Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Edward R Morrow at a spa.

Casting note: Put Patricia Arquette and Glen Close in a mother/daughter film. Call HBO. Also Charlize Theron and Katherine Heigl. Get back to me.

Speaking of Katherine Heigl. I have not seen too many of the Grey's crew here tonight. A more faithful viewer would know who was nominated. I did fall hard for the season closer, but I don't know if I will remember to watch next Sunday.

9:33pm Jessica Lange flashes a little tat under her jewelry. I count on Entertainment Weekly to get to the bottom of this for us in their re-cap. A real Blogger would have the connections to look into it live -- or even a live connection -- but that's not what you come here for, is it?

Why DO you come here?

On this commercial break, I would like to tell you about a new pita chip made by Cedar's. Do not eat them -- unless they are dipped in queso.

Sprint's commercial is set in the Guggenheim, where I am fairly sure you can not take or make a phone call.

10:00pm - political checkpoint. Only (1) each Mayor, Governor, Senator ad. Mayor for life Tom Menino wants to remind you that in your adult years of civic awareness, he has always been mayor. don't mess with it.

10:11pm - The Windows ad... one more time.

10:15pm DRAMA

or... Cops, Lawyers, Docs, and other franchises

You know, this show really isn't as fun as the Globes. More alcohol please.

I am sorry that Chandra Wilson is considered a Supporting Actress. She had such a presence in the first 2 seasons of Grey's. If I had been on Facebook then, she would have been my profile pic.

Matthew Weiner has a wife. Huh.

One of the CSIs should do an episode where the victim appears to have been killed by a vampire, but it is revealed that the wings of an Emmy were the actual weapon.

10:45pm. Not much longer now. I will predict the guy who plays Dexter, you know, David Fisher. Man, I miss Six Feet Under. I may have to watch that all over again.

Predicting Mad Men for drama; 30 Rock for comedy. This is the honor system.Great cable series you should look into if you have been living without cable

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Talking with a friend the other day about our gripes and ailments (as middle-aged ladies start to do) and she says, "...so they were going to put me on Effexor, and..."

I jumped the track: "Effexor? Like Affects Her? They named a drug that?"

And they colored it pink, which we have all been trained is the new empowerment color for women, because anything that color can actually cure cancer. Even when it's a vaccum cleaner.

I immediately added Effexor to my list of we-give-up product names, where pharmaceuticals reign supreme. You'll recall my discovery of Veramyst, the drug that admits in its name they don't know how it works.

#1 on this list is Anusol.In the Marketing bullpen: "Tommy, you're not getting it. Listen. It's a solvent.... for....?"

Remember when Claritin came out and for weeks the commercial never told you what it was for? Just convinced you that it would make everything sunshiney. Was it an allergy drug? An antidepressent? A trial separation? Claritin was the first of the "maybe I should ask my doctor" advertisements that lulled us with lists of "rare" side effects that sound the same or worse than the condition we were treating.

Cialus is a good one. I see Alice, right over there in the adjoining bathtub. She helped me move them outside. I could not confirm what "cialis" literally means, but I did discover that its generic name is tadalafil, as if the usual Gang of Idiots at Mad Magazine went to work for Lilly:

"Honey....?" (gestures) "Ta-da!" (hands on hips) "La FILL!"

tadalafil. you made that up.

Here's one George Bush named: Abilify. I bet Bristol-Myers was surprised to find this name hadn't been used already. Like hurricane forecasters, these poor souls have to slog through lists of brand names for an original idea. Why this name does everything! They can sell it later. It is a schizophrenia drug.

I have always enjoyed the sound of Keflex. It's a Serbian spy ring. Or a watch brand. Actually, the sound of you coughing up whatever is infecting your lungs. Everyone of these drugs has its own website. Now that I have visited them all, I expect a more entertaining class of ad on my Facebook home page than "You are fat, single, and should go back to school."

Know what would make me feel better? A big dose of Boostrix. This is what she looks like.

There are dozens of drug with "flu" in their name. Fluzone seems to be a counter-productive choice. I learned that "influenza" itself is just a made up name for the "influence" of bad humors, in the way that "lunacy" came from moonlight. And I think you get worms from going barefoot and cooties from eating off your brother's plate.

Antabuse is a name that says it like it is. Like Anusol, it doesn't try to speak Greek or sound "atomic." Oh, you want abuse... I'll give you some abuse....

I started not to link to this ad, because it is not a good quality YouTube example - there is some "TRIAL VERSION" branding on it. But look around it, because this is brilliant.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

I had never been moved by Life is Good, a cute little company with a Jot the Dot sensibility. I do not golf, or own a dog, and while I enjoy the beach, it is not the element that calls me. I am more Earth and/or Air than Water.

Then one day there was a brown (brown!) t-shirt with a drawing of my own hiking boots and the slogan, "Not all who wander are lost." I found out later the line is attributed to Tolkein (not that there's anything wrong with that...). I bought it, caught up in the consumer-glow of vacation giddiness.

Today I sweated through one side and the mosquitoes bit through the other on a 3 hr ramble through Upton State Forest. (Why I Hike.)

The Governor's Council of Get off the Couch has designated certain state trails as Heart Healthy (read: strenuous) and Upton has a couple of them. Based on their incline, or length, or both, they are a good substitute for the gym on these crystal days of September, and much less expensive (donations accepted).

Upton is 2000 acres in southeastern MA near the Whitehall Reservoir, which is no longer a reservoir, so more of a lake. Dogs are allowed, which makes it more crowded than others, but most of the family traffic was arriving as I was leaving. I did not see any black bears, despite the giant warning sign at the trailhead. Bears? Holy..... bears.

Upton's got a cabin in it! You have to sing that. like Harold Hill. Have I wandered again...?

Here now, a long quote:

"Upton State Forest is home to three remaining Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp buildings with an intact parade ground and an identifiable footprint of the original camp. In 2003 a fourth building collapsed from snow load. In 2005 Preservation Mass listed the CCC Camp as one of the Ten Most Endangered Historic Resources in Massachusetts.Each year a partnership with the Friends of Upton State Forest, DCR CCC Program Committee and the Upton third grade teachers brings students to the camp for a Day in the Life of the CCC. The Friends hold events, themed hikes and vernal pool workshops using the camp as a base. "

In the past life where I was not killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, I was a skinny loner boy in the CCC. I was too smart for my own good, and the fellas called me Perfesser. I suppose not much has changed.

I came off the trail bow-legged and bone weary. Put my overshirt on the car seat so I wouldn't get it sweaty. I was soaked through my jeans and dotted with mosquito welts. Now it's Miller Time.

Big Loaf at Finder's Pub, which is (hold onto something) a slice of meatloaf inside a grilled cheese. And a Miller Lite, which I realize is Beer Soda, but I want that "drinkability" they talk about around Big US Breweries. They mean carbonated. Like a beer soda. Goes down gooooood.

I sat right there in my Sweaty McSweaty-ness, mind clear and body worked, eating God's own sandwich and considering the day very well spent. Very well spent, indeed.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

About the time 3 days ago when I started this post, only to have Blogger flake out and revert-save to an earlier version. Or maybe I did, but if that is a setting, I have no idea where it is. The "lose my stuff" setting.

This is the part of the show where I usually drop by with a lot of whining about how I haven't written lately, then cram everything I have been thinking about into one nonsensical post that shows all lack of editing and preparation. "Thinking is Writing," we used to say at the writing lab, which I never believed for a second. Thinking is Thinking. Rebecca Faery used to say, "you know you're a writer because you write it down."

Here's what I've been working out:

Playing Pandora on multiple browser tabs to see if I can either a) create a Round, b) discover a new style of Mixin. I think if you had beats on one and Aerosmith on the other, you might accidentally become Run DMC.

I heard the Reverend Run on NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me this weekend. I don't know what that augers, but it seems like something, doesn't it?

I made that picture just now while listening to my Pandora "Maeve" station. I think Run would want it that way.

I caused a stir in Facebook nation this past week by updating my profile pic to an actual picture of my contemporary self. I also experimented with opensalon.com for about 2 seconds before I realized that was too public for me, and for the same reasons I upgraded my picture. So I back-pedaled, and if I can figure out the import/export protocol, I can export/import The DrawingIn Room to Salon for some more exposure.

To tell the truth, I am not especially motivated to do it. I think I don't believe I would get an audience, and I can be rejected on my own time. I might challenge Rebecca and say you know you're a writer when people read it.

I can't stay ahead of the news curve before the blogosphere becomes saturated (talking to you, Salon....) I look at the front page of Opensalon and I think, I don't know that I have anything to add here. Not even a(n) LOLcat.

A friend's husband says we are supposed to pronounce that "Loll"...not spell it out "L-O-L." I said, "Eyem-ho, you're a pia. Jik."

But let's talk about Joe Wilson, shall we? This is a great sentence from Salon, moments after he cat-called the President and no one L'd O.L: "Wilson also reportedly called the White House to apologize; he spoke to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel." How would you like to call to apologize to the President, and instead get Rahm Emanuel? There's a tweet I want to follow. Poor Joe thought he was in Parliament for a second. Pelosi looked like she was about to take off her shoe. Where's your safe word now?

You want to know what I think about health care? I live in Massachusetts. They think of it for you. I'm not particular about who pays my doctor $200 to see her for five minutes; wake me when they start investigating why it costs $200. One post I never finished was about how my insurance wouldn't cover 8 Vitamin caps because it was considered a 2-month supply, and they only cover 1.

Other things I have not reported/commented on because it is already old news is the passing of The Senator. It gave me the shakes, I tell you, and not because Ted and I were so close.

What flipped me out was the logistical planning of his funeral on a move-in Saturday in The Fenway during a tropical storm. How would they manage the traffic? And there would be all these old people, who require drop-off and parking considerations, and in that rain.... well, they would have to get one of those long funeral home canopies, wouldn't they? Keep in mind that I am in no way responsible for coordinating this event. It is just where my brain goes.

the shakes I had were shamrock!

Let me pause a moment here to say that Blogger's other bug at present is something off with its search engine, preventing me from finding easily the posts I want to link back to.

I have probably gone on long enough. The first night I wrote this, it took an hour. After I had lost that hour I thought a while about whether I needed to reconstruct it. I thought it was pretty funny. I had also had a cocktail. And I finally decided that I had gotten what I wanted from it, and it is all about me, isn't it? I guess that decision wasn't actually final.

Overheard downstairs by Curt Shilling's place, where his coder boys come and go in packs. They play a lot of Ultimate Frisbee and look as if they would head for California if not for their intense love of baseball and sweat-shorts. As they are walking into the office, one says to the other, "That's when fine art was commercial art." Ah... Bach.

There hasn't been a Mill Update lately because it is just too bleak. Plus they cut off our access and dared us to bypass the flimsy gates they put up. It is the equivalent of writing "Do not Open! Private!" on your composition book. I think Harriet M Welsh could tell us a thing or two about how breakable that lock is. So I'll just come home and blog about them. Do they think I have no workarounds?

I job hunt like other people fold down pages in catalogs.

I've been getting a whole lot of Rock Star of late, in a way that may require a proctologist to remedy. Today I said, as I slogged yet again to her door (all of 25 steps from my cage), "I really need to move closer to your office." Her face showed that she didn't get what I was driving at, so I explained, "It's just too far to walk." Longer beat. (haha. I'm funny. Please don't kill me.) She says, "Oh, see, I look forward to those opportunities."

:01 PAUSE, then I can only say, "Of...course you do."

By the end of the day with sass-o-meter cranked to 11, and The Boss MIA-PTO, I came back to the door and said, "It's a thankless job, so I have come to get some."